Wood

• 13-15 May 2008, Madison, Wisconsin, USA: Small Wood 2008 & Bioenergy and Wood Products (Themes: biomass, wood)

• 18-22 August 2008, Bloomington, Minnesota, USA: Short Rotation Crops International Conference: Biofuels, Bioenergy and Bioproducts from Sustainable Agricultural and Forest Crops. (Themes: biofuels, bioenergy, bioproducts, crops, wood)

• 22 October 2008, Rome, Italy: Policy Dialogue on Potential Sustainable Wood Supply in Europe (PDF file). (Themes: Europe, wood)

• With better stoves, UN aims to cut risk of murder, rape for women seeking firewood, 16 December 2009 by UN News Center: "The United Nations today launched a pilot project to provide fuel-efficient stoves to some 150,000 women in Sudan and Uganda to cut the risks of murder, rape and other violence they face in gathering firewood, while at the same time protecting the environment."
  • "'Women and girls should not have to risk their lives and dignity, and precious trees should not be lost, in the simple act of trying to cook food for their families,' WFP Executive Director Josette Sheeran said. 'The SAFE stoves launch will help protect them and the environment with practical and urgently needed solutions.'"[6]

• Dead Forests to Fuel Vehicles, 15 September 2009 by CleanTechnica: "The University of Georgia Research Foundation has developed an innovative way to turn dead trees into a liquid fuel and has licensed it to Tolero Energy in California. We could be driving on our dead forests as soon as 2010."
  • "Infestations of the mountain pine beetle have devastated forests in the western United States and Canada, killing over 40 million acres of pine trees. As the trees decompose and decay, they release millions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere, and the devastation has created a significant and dangerous fire hazard in the western forests."[7]

• Environmental Groups Spar Over Certifications of Wood and Paper Products , 12 September 2009 by New York Times: "For more than a decade, the nonprofit Forest Stewardship Council generally has been viewed as the premier judge of whether a wood or paper product should be labeled as environmentally friendly."
  • "But to the dismay of major environmental groups, that label, known as F.S.C., is facing a stiff challenge from a rival certification system supported by the paper and timber industry. At stake is the trust of consumers in the ever-expanding market for 'green' products."
  • "This week lawyers for ForestEthics, a nonprofit group dedicated to protecting forests, filed administrative complaints with the Federal Trade Commission and the Internal Revenue Service challenging the credibility of the rival label, known as the Sustainable Forestry Initiative, or S.F.I."
  • "The complaints, which challenge S.F.I.'s nonprofit status, accuse the certification program of lax standards and deceptive marketing intended to obscure the standards and the S.F.I.'s financial ties to the forest industry."[8]

• Biomass energy 'could be harmful', 14 April 2009 by BBC News: "Biomass power - such as burning wood for energy - could do more harm than good in the battle to reduce greenhouse gases, the [UK] Environment Agency warns."
  • "Biomass is considered low carbon as long as what is burnt is replaced by new growth, and harvesting and transport do not use too much fuel."
  • "The EA's report reiterated the belief that biomass had the potential to play a 'major role' in producing low carbon, renewable energy to help meet future energy needs and help cut greenhouse gas emissions."
  • "But the report Biomass: Carbon Sink or Carbon Sinner (PDF file) also found that the greenhouse gas emission savings from such fuels were currently highly variable."[9]

• Range Fuels gets $80M loan commitment, 19 January 2009 by Denver Business Journal: "Range Fuels Inc. said Monday it's received a conditional commitment for an $80 million loan from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to help build the company's commercial cellulosic ethanol plant near Soperton, Ga."
  • "Range Fuels uses a proprietary, two-step conversion process using heat and chemicals to convert biomass -- such as wood chips, switchgrass and other carbon-based waste items -- into ethanol. The Georgia plant will use wood and wood waste from that state's pine forests and mills as its feedstock and is expected to have the capacity to produce more than 100 million gallons of ethanol a year." [10]

• 'Green coal' to get a tryout, 13 January 2009 by The News & Observer.
  • "North Carolina is about to become the nation's test case for what marketers call 'green coal' -- wood that has been baked into charcoal. If successful, the experiment -- a partnership of sorts between Progress Energy, N.C. State University and an Asheville start-up -- could mark the end of the state's reliance on dirty coal."
  • "The wood has to be treated in an industrial oven until it turns to charcoal. It remains to be seen if the experimental ovens can mass-produce charred wood of a uniform quality that won't clog power plants sensitively calibrated to burn coal."
  • "The process of torrefaction is so experimental that it has only been tested in a power plant once, in the Netherlands in 2005, for a 24-hour period. Even if power plants can burn the fuel successfully, electric utilities won't sign long-term contracts for charred wood if they lack confidence they can count on steady supplies. Currently there are no commercial suppliers in the world." [11]

• BlueFire: cellulosic delay to be less than 6 months, 4 January 2009 by Reuters:
  • "BlueFire said in a letter to shareholders late last month that it was delaying construction of the plant until further notice. The company is one of a handful that hopes to make a new alternative motor fuel from feedstocks like agricultural waste, wood scraps and fast growing grasses."
  • "Rising construction costs, the credit crunch and difficulties in getting permits from the state of California led to the delay, the letter said." [12]

2008

• UNECE and FAO Conduct Workshop on Woody Biomass, 11 December 2008 by Climate-L.org: "Wood-based energy bears significant potential as a fuel source for Serbia and other South-East European countries, concluded a workshop entitled 'Woody Biomass - the Fuel Choice for Serbia,' held from 2-3 December 2008, in Belgrade, Serbia."
  • "Participants agreed that woody biomass could generate considerable economic, environmental and social benefits"...but that "a number of constraints to the development of woody biomass exist, and that significant investments in infrastructure development and the development of domestic production of small- and medium-sized wood energy generation are needed."[13]

• Alternative Fuels Take Root in Refugee Camps, 9 December 2008, by Carnegie Council Policy Innovations:
  • "Families in Darfur have traditionally cooked with wood over open flame, but the practice has become linked to many problems. Women are raped and assaulted while collecting firewood. The environment is degraded. Women suffer respiratory illness from cooking smoke, and open flames pose a hazard in crowded camps."
  • "In response, humanitarian organizations are introducing alternative fuels and energy technologies to Darfur and refugee camps worldwide, and businesses and relief organizations will come together this week at the first Beyond Firewood conference in New Delhi, India, to discuss energy-related ideas and products."

• Forests to fall for food and fuel, 13 July 2008 by BBC News: "Demand for land to grow food, fuel crops and wood is set to outstrip supply, leading to the probable destruction of forests, a report warns."
  • "The Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI) says only half of the extra land needed by 2030 is available without eating into tropical forested areas."
  • "'Arguably, we are on the verge of a last great global land grab,'" said RRI's Andy White, co-author of the major report, Seeing People through the Trees."
  • Rising demand for food, biofuels and wood for paper, building and industry means that 515 million hectares of extra land will be needed for growing crops and trees by 2030, RRI calculates."[14]